Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Yesterday when I arrived home from work I found a delivery attempt notice from TNT hanging from our back doorknob. I called the number on the card and discovered that they were trying to deliver a package from India. Their depot in Woburn would be open for another hour, so RuthAnne and I hopped in the car and picked up the parcel.

When we got it home, the cats immediately claimed ownership; they seemed to find the smell enormously exciting.

Katy was on her way home from my mother's house, and I decided to wait for her to arrive before opening the package. I knew what it had to be.

Over a year and a half ago, at the very end of my assignment in Hyderabad, I ordered - and mostly pre-paid for - a silk-on-silk, hand-knotted 5x7 carpet from Kashmir, through my friend, Feroz. This was an interesting exercise in trust. I'd gotten to know Feroz by playing backgammon with him at the shops he worked at as a salesman. We'd become friends and discussed carpet designs often; I occasionally brought him pictures of carpets from other shops that were close to the design I was looking for, but not quite it. Feroz persuaded me to order a unique carpet through him, sight unseen, to be made to order and delivered in about a year.

On the face of it, this was crazy. The amount of money at risk was enough that this would be a painful lesson on human nature if the carpet never materialized. But - I'd known Feroz for 6 months, and we'd spent a lot of time together. I liked and trusted him.

Over the course of the past year I've received occasional updates on the carpet's progress from Feroz, and when I was back in Hyderabad last fall I paid the remainder of the amount due on the carpet. Finally, last week Feroz advised me to be on the lookout for the carpet's arrival - and here it is.